HYDERABAD (TIP): Two days after struggling against a lower ranked opponent Saina Nehwal was in full flow on Thursday as she breezed past Fitriani Fitriani of Indonesia 21-11, 21-10 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier in Jakarta on June 2.
However, the doubles teams disappointed suffering straight game losses. Seasoned campaigners Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa , who are ranked 14 in the world, proved no match to Chinese pair of Yaqiong Huang and Jinjua Tang 9-21, 18-21. The World No. 25 team took just 33 mins to oust the Indians. Later, men’s doubles outfit of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy fared poorly against sixth seeds Sung Hyun Ko and Baek Cheol Shin 18-21, 13-21. Saina now needs to come up with her best show, where she will face World No.1 Carolina Marin of Spain.
The bottom-half of women’s singles witnessed an upset as Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei put it across Olympic champion and third seed Li Xuerui of China 2118, 21-18. Five-time world and two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan was stunned in the second round of men’s singles. The Super Dan was shocked by Indonesian youngster Jonatan Christie 12-21, 12-21.